Logic And Data Bases

Logic and Data Bases

This book is a collection of substantially revised versions of the majority of the papers presented at the workshop, after peer review. The focus of the book is a comprehensive description of the interaction between logic and data bases. Logic can be used as a programming language, query language, for deductive searches, maintain data base integrity, provide formalism for handling negative information, to generalize concepts in knowledge representation, and to represent and manipulate data structures. Logic provides a unifying mathematical theory for data bases, and a powerful tool for many data base tasks. This book can be used as the basis of a graduate seminar in computer science.

Logic and Data Bases

Logic and Databases

Logic and databases are inextricably intertwined. The relational model in particular is essentially just elementary predicate logic, tailored to fit the needs of database management. Now, if you're a database professional, I'm sure this isn't news to you; but you still might not realize just how much everything we do in the database world is - or should be! - affected by predicate logic. Logic is everywhere. So if you're a database professional you really owe it to yourself to understand the basics of formal logic, and you really ought to be able to explain (and perhaps defend) the connections between formal logic and database management. And that's what this book is about. What it does is show, through a series of partly independent and partly interrelate essays, just how various crucial aspects of database technology-some of them very familiar, others maybe less so- are solidly grounded in formal logic. It is divided into five parts: *Basic Logic *Logic and Database Management *Logic and Database Design *Logic and Algebra *Logic and the Third Manifesto There's also a lengthy appendix, containing a collection of frequently asked questions (and some answers) on various aspects of logic and database management. Overall, my goal is to help you realize the importance of logic in everything you do, and also- I hope- to help you see that logic can be fun.